For this tracker I take a look at upcoming games for that night and we're counting points for the other teams on the tracker. Although it's the biggest factor, I don't include Detroit's results, just the other teams that are within 4 points of Detroit.

Example, there's 6 other teams being tracked in today's example. If 4 of them play and they all win we've got 8 out of a possible 8 tank points.

If one of those games have 2 of the teams playing each other, then they both can't win. An overtime win by one of them is the best result. In that example it would be a possible 7 points.

(I've reversed the standings order to see if that shows things better)

One thing to keep in mind is that most of the other bottom dwellers don’t have many core players on the trade block. Howard, Jensen, and Nyquist have all been huge for Detroit this year. If we lose them, we could be in for a free fall.

Ottawa is basically the only other team who is poised to lose as many key players. NYR could lose a couple key forwards but they also have a ton of young forwards who could step in to fill that void. The other bottom feeders should mostly retain their core and only lose secondary players.

From the site you linked, you can also see that worst record can fall no farther than 4th, and has the best odds of any team in the league of landing Hughes.

Yes, it's a coin flip whether they stay in the top 3, but the second worst record stands a good chance at dropping to 5th, and the third worst record could drop to 6th, and so on...

It's mitigation more than anything else. If the Wings at least remain bottom 2, they're guaranteed at least a top 5 pick, and might do even better. Now maybe your draft board shows little to no difference between players in the 3-7 slots, but mine doesn't - I most definitely want to be in the following group:

Hughes
Kakko
Dach
Cozens
Byram

Now I know that Podkolzin is in that top 6 as well, but based on the here and now, I want one of the above players, so I want one of the top 5 picks to guarantee I get one.